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Overnight Cinnamon Rolls are amazing. Make the night before and refrigerate. Bake in the morning and enjoy!
Cinnamon rolls and the first weekend in October go together at our house. Our church holds a General Conference that is televised each April and October. We stay home from church and watch it in our jammies and eat cinnamon rolls. Cinnamon rolls are required! At least at our house they are.
But this year I decided I didn’t want to have to get up in the morning and make cinnamon rolls. Even if it only took 60 minutes so I decided to make Overnight Cinnamon Rolls. You mix up and form the cinnamon rolls the night before, refrigerate and then wake up and let them sit for about 30-60 minutes to rise a bit and then bake. Doesn’t get much easier than that (o.k., so buying Rhodes Frozen Cinnamon Rolls would be easier but not as good!!)
The process is easy – mix up your dough and let it rise for an hour. If you need some tips on working with yeast check out this post. This dough is a denser dough than you may be use to. It will lighten up as it rises but needs to be a bit denser to hold up in the refrigerator and not overrise.
Roll out dough into a 12 x 14 rectangle (approx.) and lather it with butter and sprinkle with cinnamon/sugar mixture.
Roll up and slice. I like to use thread to slice my rolls. Gives a nice clean cut.
Line a 9 x 13 pan with parchment paper and place cut slices in pan or you can just grease the pan. I got 12 nice size cinnamon rolls.
Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate overnight. In the morning remove from the refrigerator and let it sit at room temperature for an hour if your house is warm. I like to turn my oven onto 150 degrees F and then turn it off and put the rolls in there to rise. You can cover them gently with a towel.
After they have risen put them in a 350 degree F oven for 25-35 minutes or until golden brown. They will rise more as they bake.
The next to the last step is to cover them in frosting. I use a mixture of butter, vanilla, powdered sugar and whipping cream. You can use regular milk if you don’t have whipping cream.
The final step is to eat one!! Or two!
Come on over to our house on Sunday for cinnamon rolls!
Check out more of my favorite cinnamon roll recipes:
Overnight Cinnamon Rolls
Ingredients
- 1 C milk
- 1/3 C butter
- 2 1/4 tsp of dry active yeast
- 2/3 C white sugar
- 4 1/2 – 5 C flour
- 1 tsp salt
- 2 eggs
Filling
- 1/2 C brown sugar
- 1 1/2 Tbsp cinnamon
- 1/4 C butter
Glaze
- 3 Tbsp butter softened
- 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
- 1 1/2 C powdered sugar
- 2 -3 Tbsp whipping cream or milk
Instructions
- Heat the milk in a pan until it begins to bubble. Remove from heat and add butter. Stir until butter melts.
- When milk is lukewarm add yeast and allow to proof for 10 minutes.
- Put sugar, 3 cups of flour, salt and eggs into a mixer. Add in yeast mixture. Mix.
- Add in remaining flour until dough is no longer sticky. Knead for 5 minutes until smooth and soft.
- Oil a large bowl and place dough in bowl, turn to coat dough with oil. Cover with a cloth and let rise in a warm place until double in size. About 1 hour.
- Deflate the dough and put onto a floured surface and roll out into a 12×14 rectangle.
- Spread with softened butter.
- Mix together brown sugar and cinnamon. Sprinkle over dough.
- Roll up dough into log and cut into 12 pieces.
- Line a 9 x 13 pan with parchment paper or grease it. Place dough into pan and cover with pastic wrap and place in refrigerator over night.
- In the morning remove from refrigerator and allow to set in a warm place for an hour. I like to turn my oven to 150 degrees F and then turn off the oven and place the rolls in the oven to rise.
- Bake at 350 degrees for 25-30 minutes or until golden brown.
- Mix together butter, vanilla, powdered sugar and whipping cream until a nice smooth consistency. Spread over warm rolls.
Nutrition Facts:
Lauren says
My yeast will not proof in the liquid. I have tried making this 3x. You need to add sugar to the milk in order for the yeast to proof correctly.
Leigh Anne Wilkes says
I am sorry you are having a problem. I have made the recipe as written dozens of times. If you think adding sugar will help, give it a try.
Katie says
Made these for my baby sitter and the family lived them!
They were super easy too!
Do you think you can freeze these, like instead of putting in the fridge?
Leigh Anne Wilkes says
I haven’t ever frozen them but I think it should work fine.
Sarah says
Anyone have issues with this dough not rising? I bake a ton and it’s been way over an hour (probably more than 2) and the dough has not “doubled”…. Is this just my experience with this recipie?
Leigh Anne Wilkes says
Sorry you had an issue. I just made them last night (Christmas Eve) and the dough raised fine.
Sue Lanter says
Question, how early the day before can I make these? I’m thinking of making them for Christmas morning and we go out on Christmas Eve. Can I make them in the afternoon?
Nanny says
I like to make pecan caramel rolls with putting Caramel mixture in bottom of pan and then baking. Then, tipping over pan and scraping any caramel mixture remaining in pan onto rolls. My question is: Can I still make these if I put the parchment paper down first in pan, spread the pecan caramel mixture on top and then put rolled and cut rolls on top and bake?
Leigh Anne Wilkes says
Should work fine
Leigh Anne Wilkes says
I have never made them as pecan rolls but I think it should work fine